Use What You've Got - October's Quilt Guild Article

Yeah, I'm a little behind on these...  This was my President's Article from last October.  My son is still turning everything into drumsticks and baseball bats.

I have a friend who is involved in everything.  She doesn’t say, “No.” often.  I get drawn into her craziness periodically.  She lives in Texas.  If she were local, I’m sure I’d be drawn in much more.  This week she’s making felted wool items for one of her many organizations.  She called me to ask my advice on rotary cutters, mats, scissors and anything else that might help her make a lap-size felted wool blanket.  I think I take for granted that we have so many wonderful tools at our disposal.  Even then I see many of us using everyday things to help in our quilting.  I see my son do the same thing.  He’ll be 2 next week and loves football, drums and baseball.  He can make anything work for his passions.  His sister’s Dora bike helmet is now his football helmet.  Pencils, straws and sticks become his drumsticks.  And everything can be a baseball bat.  He’s used his wooden train whistle and a rocket launcher.  This morning he held his stuffed Curious George by one leg and took a swing at a Nerf basketball.  I hope we can all have the creativity to use the things we have on hand that he has!

(As a side note, my friend’s craziness can be really fun.  Long ago, before children and husbands, we once took a long weekend and went to New York for cheesecake.)

Pink Whirligig Quilt for my Friend's Benefit

I loved making this quilt! The pinks are so happy and the pattern is fun and pretty easy. Easy is always good, especially with a looming deadline. I ended up making it in a week, which is super-fast. I started it right after I finished my daughter's Easter dress (check out that blog entry here). After that, I was really happy to know what I was doing when working on something!

I chose the happy pinks and fun pattern for an auction to benefit my friend who is battling breast cancer and has MS. She is a very happy, upbeat, wacky kinda gal. The benefit was awesome and they raised quite a bit to help her with expenses. I'm so glad I could do this little bit for her.

A Study in Color and Scale

I like to make quilts with big squares and bright fabrics, especially with kids' fabrics. I was given some Civil War reproduction fabric and wasn't sure what to do with it. I found a cute pattern called "Uncle Frank's Socks" by Carol Hopkins as part of her Civil War Legacy pattern line. I liked it, but it seemed kind of small. I had some small bits of bright fabrics, so I blew up the pattern and made another. I quilted them the same way and arranged the blocks the same way. I'm amazed how two quilts can look so different!

A quilt for Brian's wife

Over the summer I heard of a man who wanted a quilt with some pictures & words on it. It became one with names of his family members & some other words. It is for his wife. He said she likes pink & purple, but not roses. Do you know how hard it is to find pink fabric for grownups without roses?

This is how it turned out. He decided against pictures & we just went with words. I'm pretty pleased with it, although I wasn't sure for a while.

Brian is a fantastic guy. It is obvious that he adores his wife. I did have a huge fear that I'd get a call from her one day demanding to know who I am and why her husband kept calling me. I'm sure my planned "Uh, ask your husband" answer wouldn't have helped much. It was wonderful to make this for him.